Issue - meetings

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32.       

32.1.      The Board considered a report on the annual report of the Director of Public Health 2019/20: Health and Housing in East Sussex.

32.2.      The Board commented on the difficulty people with mental health issues may have dealing with poor housing; and the difficulty some may have in seeking professional help to deal with these problems.

32.3.      Keith Hinkley said that the report is clear on the need for collaborative work over the long term to deal with housing issues. Responsibility for housing rests across many organisations and there is therefore joint responsibility to help people with their housing issues and a need to work collaboratively to achieve this goal. 

32.4.      Sam Allen, Chief Executive of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPFT), said that the report would be considered by the Trust’s Board given the importance of housing to mental health, and the potential role the Trust could have meeting the housing needs of its patients and assisting people with mental health issues to maintain their housing.

32.5.      The Board asked for clarity on what its role should be in relation to housing matters.

32.6.      Keith Hinkley said this report will help inform key areas of work of the ESHSCP and of the individual member organisations over the coming years, for example, by including housing related support in the future ESHSCP mental health and children’s services workstreams; and East Sussex County Council (ESCC) taking decisions around housing related support and accommodation services, which are outside the scope of the ESHSCP but are delivered in partnership with the district and borough councils. The progress of the ESHSCP is reported to the Board and so housing matters can be monitored by the Board via the quarterly update reports.

32.7.      The Board asked what more could be done to improve air quality, particularly along busy roads like the A259.

32.8.      Darrell Gale, Director of Public Health, said that the 5.2% of deaths in the county connected to air quality tend to be related to chronic rather than acute exposure, i.e., long term exposure to poor air quality, and are a look back rather than projection of future deaths. Transport is part of the cause of poor air quality and Transport for South East is always looking at improving air quality through transport initiatives; rural deprivation is also a cause, particularly through wood burning; and local customs around bonfires and fireworks can have an effect. These areas would need to be looked at to potentially reduce deaths in the future. 

32.9.      The Board asked about whether dental surgeries should be available to people within a 20 minute travel distance time like GP practices.

32.10.   Darrell Gale agreed that more needs to be done to understand access to NHS dentistry services and recognise its relation to levels of deprivation.

32.11.   The Board asked why childhood injury rates in East Sussex were worse compared to the rest of the country.

32.12.   Darrell Gale agreed the rates were a concern.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32